Department store properties head to auction

Department store properties head to auction

Younkers says it is about "inspiring your wardrobe and your world." Photo via wikimedia.org

Two West Michigan department store properties, formerly owned by a bankrupt corporation, are going up for auction.

The Melville, New York-based real estate advisory and brokerage firm A&G Realty Partners will auction 10 department store properties formerly owned by The Bon-Ton Stores on Jan. 28 in New York City.

The available assets include two former Younkers properties at RiverTown Crossings in Grandville and The Lakes Mall in Fruitport Township.

The two vacant retail properties are 150,081 square feet and 106,131 square feet.

In May 2018, A&G was retained to dispose all real estate assets of The Bon-Ton Stores. The assets included seven ground leases, 194 leased locations and 23 fee-owned properties.

“To date, 13 fee-owned and seven leased properties have been successfully sold to storage users, developers/investors, fitness centers, a casino, home furnishings retailers and health care users, to name a few,” said Michael Jerbich, a Chicago-based principal at A&G Realty Partners.

“The large-format spaces on auction here are rife for re-invention and repurposing, and the sale also represents a tremendous opportunity for market penetration in these areas.”

The "Bon-Ton" name came under new ownership after the previous owner liquidated the 10 properties, according to a customer representative for The Bon-Ton.

The new ownership of The Bon-Ton is in the process of opening new stores in Illinois, Wisconsin and Colorado.

No plans for Michigan were disclosed at press time, but the customer representative did not rule out the possibility of The Bon-Ton attempting to buy back any of the auctioned properties.

The bankruptcy auction will begin at 10 a.m. on Jan. 28 at the New York office of sellers’ counsel Jones Day, at 250 Vesey St.

All bids for the auction, which centers on fee-owned properties in six states, are due on Jan. 25.